A trip to the past
by bhut
Summary: AU season three, post ep 3x02. A family of gigantopithecus leads the ARC team towards new adventures.
1. Chapter 1

**A trip to the past**

_Disclaimer: All characters belong to Impossible Pictures. ™_

The male gigantopithecus was dying. It – or rather he – had been defending his family for days from the attacks of the starving predators, but it couldn't defend them from two very different enemies: starvation and volcanic ash.

It began (unknown to the gigantopithecus) several weeks ago to the south-west, when the Toba supervolcano had finally erupted, releasing clouds of ash and dust into air, starting the latest Ice Age and catching the local megafauna completely flat-footed. The clouds of debris blocked the sun cutting-off the sunlight, causing mass cooling and extinction of the plant-life that formerly fed the ancient apes.

But worse than starvation was the ash as it got into the animals' lungs and condensed there into a concrete-like substance instead. The gigantopithecines, as well as other animals, were suffocating alive and there was no escape from this death.

With the last vestiges of its once-great strength the gigantopithecus tried to follow its family, but apparently it had reached and surpassed its limits long ago – and therefore it promptly collapsed, falling into a cloud of chromatically white light that had appeared out of nowhere...

* * *

Ever since mastering (at least partially so) the knowledge of how the time anomalies work, Helen Cutter found herself with a lot of free time on her hands, pun included. And ever since the disaster with Leek, she found that she didn't enjoy it at all.

Now, admittedly, this situation has been ripening for a while: ever since Helen learned how to survive in prehistoric times _and_ was able to track down the entire evolution of humanity, from its' rise slightly over three million years in the past to its downfall in roughly another five million years in the future, she began to understand that what she had stumbled-upon was a rather double-edged gift and that something had to be done about it – but sadly, Helen failed to accomplish that goal and was now currently staying roughly thirty thousand years in the past trying to think of what to do next – or just give in into her ever-growing insanity and give up.

And then, suddenly, an unexpected time anomaly opened a short distance away from her current camp and out of it fell – literally so – several massive apes, apes of a kind that were supposed to have become long extinct by now.

Gigantopithecines.

"Hmm, interesting," Helen said with less passion than what she actually felt. "I haven't seen you in a while – hah?"

The gigantopithecines were twitching and jerking and it was not because of the unexpected cold (not that they were adapted to it), but from an internal cough that sounded very, very wrong. "Hmm, interesting," Helen repeated, but this time with an audible strain in her voice. "What should I do about it?"

In reality Helen knew that there were only two options – let the ancient apes die or do something about it – and due to her travels in the far (well, not _too_ far) future Helen had just the thing.

She reached into her rucksack and withdrew a syringe and several ampoules of wine-coloured liquid – and she poured one of them into the syringe, before beginning to apply it to the gigantopithecines (two females, three youngsters and a big male that was lying in the end of the group). And she applied the regeneratory liquid, the gigantopithecines began to twitch even harder, and then they began to vomit. However, it wasn't any regular vomit (as gross as that may sound) – instead it was some sort of a grey material that resembled no organic material, but rather definitely inorganic concrete.

"Hmm, interesting" Helen said for the third time, although this time she was concentrating more on the vomit than on the apes. "From what time _did_ you come from? Obviously not from when I met you, no... Still, speaking of time, an Ice Age winter is definitely not for you, so what to do with you, then?"

And since Helen was Helen, and because she was at her best whenever she was confronting with a challenge (although lately she had to admit that her best was not as good as she thought it was) she very quickly thought of exactly what to do with them.

* * *

The phone ringing woke Nick Cutter hard and fast. "What is it now, it's not yet six in the morning, the sun is not yet up!"

"Nick," the older man could practically hear the wince in Connor's voice, "just turn on the TV, please!"

Something in Connor's voice convinced Nick that that would be the _right_ idea and feeling rather reluctant and unhappy he turned it on.

"Hello, this is Mick Harper from the ITV news," the reporter's smooth voice cut through the silence of Nick's living room. "Speaking to you from the Motorway 25 with unexpected news. As some of you may be aware, several weeks ago a creature significantly bigger than any elephant found in local zoos or circuses has been seen rampaging through this very spot before it disappeared under rather suspicious circumstances. Now, however, the beast hasn't re-appeared – but instead the drivers and passer-bys can behold this family of just as large apes feasting on leaves and fresh shoots in the nearby copse. The motorway's authorities have already contacted the local zoos not just to confirm that these beasts have _not_ escaped from their enclosure, but also to capture and study them under controlled conditions-"

Nick turned the TV off and raced – still almost half-dressed to his front porch where a van bearing an ARC logo was already waiting for him.

* * *

Once the apes were safely browsing in the small copse some distance away from the Motorway (fortunately it was currently in little use due to the early hours), Helen returned back to the Pleistocene and began to re-examine the time anomaly that had brought the animals to her in the first place.

Essentially, in the terms of what Helen had learned about these things, this time anomaly was a new one, uncharted, in other words by either her or – most likely – the ARC (if they started to map them at all, that is), which, in turn meant...

"Hmm, interesting," Helen felt as if she was in some verbal rut but ignored the feeling. "Let's see where it all leads, shall we?"

The smell coming from the other side of the time anomaly wasn't encouraging though: it smelt like rot. Like rot and deterioration and death. Yet since Helen was no stranger to _any_ of these smells she shrugged, grabbed her manifestation device, set it on a recording mode, and stepped through all the same.

* * *

"All right, hit me," Nick said curtly to Connor as the latter was already scrounging through the ARC's database. "What are we dealing with here?"

"A species of giant ape – gigantopithecus most likely, but I can't exactly narrow it down to the species: there were several of them, you know?"

"Right. I think I saw them eating leaves on the TV?"

"They most likely were – they were vegetarians, not meat-eaters, no danger of _that_ in this case."

"Connor, our mammoth is a plant-eater, yet it is more than capable of killing people especially-"

"Especially what?"

Abruptly, the vehicles stopped, preventing Nick from answering – instead the man observed (with some mixed feelings) how the still somewhat dishevelled Jenny Lewis (that is to stay, she did not look as immaculately perfect as she usually did), who still looked great (at least in the eyes of Nick Cutter if he would ever admit it) made her way towards the copse and the reporting crew looking about as angry as Nick felt.

"This," Nick muttered quietly, "just might be good."

* * *

"Hello, I am Mike Harper from ITV news. Joining me is-"

"Harper!" Jenny snarled, feeling the irritation of being woken from a particularly nice dream and being cold-fed the reality of dealing with giant apes _and_ pesky reporters at just after six in the morning metamorphose into some sort of rage instead. "You again! First you harass us with some cock-and-bull story about a mammoth, then you bother me for no particular reason, and now you're back with your old tricks-"

"Nice try, Ms. Lewis, but your tactics won't work on me now," the reporter said smugly. "As a matter of fact, I'm here with Mr. David-"

"It's Dyfed," spoke a tall, lanky character that Jenny assumed early as a part of Harper's crew, "and I would rather that you'd take your noise and leave me and my people alone. The apes are already looking askance and I _cannot_ guarantee that if they decide to charge, you'd survive."

"You heard the man," Jenny grinned as Harper's face paled somewhat. "_Leave_." Then she turned to the speaker. "And Mr. David-"

"Not here, please... and for the record, who are _you_?"

* * *

The jungle met Helen with the silence of the grave: all around her the ashen grey skeletons of tropical tree trunks stood bereft of leaves and fruits and flowers, as well as the smaller epiphytic plants. The ground too was of an unnatural ashen grey colour and it stank. It stank with a stench similar to that of the inorganic vomit from the gigantopithecines.

Carefully, Helen bent lower and took a stronger sniff. "It smells... acidic?" she instinctively asked herself. "That's not good... and how?"

As she began to straighten up, another smell hit nostrils – that of smoke. It was beginning to rise from the soles of her boot that was partially positioned in a small puddle of water... of _water_?

"Acid rain," Helen said with a shudder as several pieces of the puzzle snapped into a whole. "But in the past? How? The ash-"

A very suspicious sound that sounded remarkably like crying interrupted Helen's thought processes. Slowly, she pulled out her knife and began to walk away from the path with the puddles. Behind her, the time anomaly pulsed as it expended and shrunk.

* * *

"So, Mr. Dyfed-"

"Just call me Kenneth. One of my people tried to pull a joke on the newshound back there. Anyways, you still haven't answered my question."

"I am- We are with her majesty's government, and we're here to deal with this situation-"

"So are we – or do you think that the London zoo is a _private_ enterprise. We- what the Hell? Maitland?"

"You!" Abby had quietly walked up to Jenny and her interlocutor and stared at the man from her own short height. "I should've guessed that the zoo would send you!"

"Yes it did," Kenneth shrugged, looking downwards on the much shorter blonde. "What are you doing here? Aren't you profiling on the reptiles?"

"She's with us," Jenny said quickly, "haven't you heard?"

"Meh," Kenneth seemed unimpressed. "Anyways can you also not get under our feet as well? Me and my people – we _work_ with apes, you know, we-"

"All right, we will," Abby said in a clear huff. "Ms. Lewis, come on, let's see what our Mr. Practitioner will do!"

"Hah!"

* * *

The crying proved to be not real crying; that is it was not emitted by humans but by a pair of half-grown lion cubs, both in very poor shape. The constant outpour of highly acidic rain and a poor (practically non-existent) diet did quite a number on their bodies and by now the two smallish beasts were more dead than alive.

For her part, Helen just silently stared at the pair even as the two stared back with eyes there were once bright but now were dim from hunger, disease and pain. The cubs would die in a matter of weeks and-

"I am no bloody hero!" Helen yelled into the utterly overcast sky. "I am not someone all-powerful either! I am just- I just-" she fell silently and stared once more at the cubs. "Let's just go, kitties, as I once told myself, if I am human then I'll act human, and if someone doesn't like it, they can go and hang themselves. Time to put my money into where my mouth is, for a change."

* * *

Despite Abby's scorn, Kenneth and his co-workers clearly at least some idea of what to do: they got a truck, rotated it around the motorway so that it eventually faced the appropriate direction and opened the back door.

And then they turned-on the speakers and began to play... animal noises.

"What are you doing?" In theory, Nick Cutter and Co. should've kept their distance away from the competition. In practice, however, the curiosity of ARC's crew proved stronger, and so Nick decided to sidle over and ask the above-mentioned question.

"All monkeys are social creatures, and great apes – including ourselves – are even more so," Kenneth apparently didn't see any reason to be uncooperative either. "We _could_'ve tried luring them in ourselves, but from their suspicious looks it would not be a good – or even a working – idea, so we're trying calls of other apes instead."

"So why gibbons?" Abby, apparently, wasn't completely displeased by running into her former co-worker either. "We have gorillas and chimps, you could've-"

"These animals don't look like gorillas or chimps as even you can see it, Lizard Girl."

"Hey!"

"But they look somewhat like orang-utans, so I decided to start from Asia instead. We're using gibbons first, but since gibbons show no reaction, we'll be using the orang-utans instead. Switch it, lads!"

And the "lads" switched the animal sounds. The switch in the gigantopithecines' behaviour was immediate: the big male immediately stopped browsing and instead bellowed a threatening cry, clearly implying that he did _not_ appreciate that the new territory of his clan suddenly acquired new neighbours slash cousins. Moreover, he did not stop on a sound performance, but instead promptly charged at quite a high speed!

"Somebody, switch it off!" shouted Kenneth, but it was too late: the giant ape barrelled into truck and began to pummel it with all of his strength. Sadly, Connor decided to show initiative at that moment and shot a tranquilizer dart at the rampaging animal, but due to the angle of his tranquilizer dart as well as his own insufficient experience, he missed.

The gigantopithecus hooted in anger and tearing off the roof of the truck's driving cabin, he flung it at Connor barely missing the young man. Moreover, the male ape decided that he liked this new game and continued to rip apart the vehicle, flinging the pieces all over the motorway.

"_Connor_," Abby could only hiss at her friend, suggesting mental pain and payback in the days to come. "Once we get out of this-"

And then the big ape literally punched through the truck's trailer – and smelled several barrelfuls of ripe fruit (as well as nuts) that the zoo crew had brought over with them for a very similar purpose. Immediately the male stopped his aggression, while the rest of his family stopped acting exclusively as a cheerleading group and all of them got inside to feed. They did so for over half an hour, and then they collapsed, asleep.

"And that is how you use tranquilizers, people!" Kenneth said calmly. "And now, about the cars-"

* * *

The first thing that Helen did after she got back to her base in the modern times was boil some water, put some fish pemmican into it and feed the resulted soup to the orphaned cubs. The latter were somewhat reluctant at first, but after the first few licks they quickly decided that they liked this new sort of meal and ate it all.

And then they promptly fell asleep from the tranquilizers that had been added to the impromptu fish meal.

Helen, meanwhile, wasn't idle either: she quickly got out her supply of bandages and the like and began to wrap up the cubs – she didn't have any training, but she did plenty of self-experience...

And then she looked at the clock on the well, and then she looked the window of the laptop that lay on a table to the side of her, then she looked at the peacefully sleeping – and firmly bandaged – lion cubs and made a decision.

* * *

"Boy, that was fun!" Connor finally found courage to turn to Abby with words of _some_ sort. "And those former colleagues of yours, Abby, were quite decent, even if Kenneth did come off as a bit of jerk at first-"

"Connor, you're still an idiot," Abby sighed. "Kenneth and his people did the bulk of the capture at the very least; I know that if _I_ was in Kenneth's position I would fight over at least some of the prehistoric apes for the zoo. And I know Kenneth – he never really liked backing down from the fight, even if he was not ambitious career-wise. I don't know why he agreed to surrender them so easily-"

"Abby, don't worry, if your friend will try something funny the ARC will be more than a match for him-"

"Connor, he's not my friend, we barely even saw each other: I dealt with snakes and lizards, he – with apes and monkeys. We barely even crossed each other's paths!" Abby turned red. "Anyways, speaking of apes, what will we be doing about ours?"

"Let's put them next to the mammoth," Nick Cutter didn't sound too sure of it himself. "And then – well, I am not sure – maybe we'll be able to send them back... what's Sarah Page doing?"

"Waiting for us?" Connor suggested helpfully.

"She never did that before, idiot!" Abby snarled.

As the younger couple began to squabble, Jenny and Nick got out of their car and approached Sarah instead.

"Sarah, what's wrong?" Jenny asked, suspecting that no one is going to like this answer.

"Jenny, Nick – about an hour ago Helen Cutter came to the ARC and offered James a temporary truce of sorts."

"...And look, it's only ten in the morning," Jenny said after a pause. "I guess that by the same time in the evening we're all going to die in apocalypse!"

_To be continued... _


	2. To Pleistocene we go

**To Pleistocene we'll go (and back again)**

_Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine, unless noted otherwise..._

Flanked by loyal Jenny, Nick Cutter practically showed Lorraine aside and entered Lester's office. "Lester," he began in a full rage, "what were you thinking-" and fell silent, for the office was empty not only of Lester or Helen, but of anyone else save for Nick, Jenny and Lorraine, who followed the two of them with these words:

"They're in the medical wing."

Nick and Jenny exchanged confused looks. "Why?" Jenny finally asked.

"Because of the lions."

"Lorraine... wait, what lions?"

"Prehistoric ones, I bet. They look terrible, they're currently in the medical wing, and so's... everybody else," Lorraine said diplomatically. "Maybe you should go there as well?"

"Yes," Jenny nodded gratefully, "we will."

* * *

When the field crew returned to the ARC, Abby walked-off about as quickly as Nick did, but in another direction and for a different reason – the run-in with her former colleagues stirred some nostalgia in Abby's heart that she didn't aware that she had and Connor's actions only made it worse.

Connor... Abby didn't know what to make of her roommate, not any more. She was undoubtedly glad that he didn't want to have anything with Caroline anymore, not after the other woman had hurt Rex so, but... then he had to do something as foolish as shooting a huge prehistoric ape with a woefully underestimated amount of tranquilizer _and miss_.

And then, when Abby would try and dwell on such thoughts another voice would speak, suggesting that she was nitpicking and that she wasn't fair – and Abby didn't like heeding such thoughts at all-

Abby entered the ARC's medical wing – she had to pass through to it to visit their mascot the mammoth – and stared. Helen Cutter was there, as well as James Lester, and both of them were looking at several members of the ARC's medical staff as the latter fussed around a pair of seriously sick juvenile lions.

"What happened to them?" Abby instinctively asked, pointing at them.

"Severe acid rain," Helen said curtly, "plus almost complete starvation."

"Oh. Right. What did you do to them?" Abby pressed on.

"Bandaged their sores, fed them some fish and brought them here."

"Where she promptly offered to work here while we nurse them back to health," James Lester added, helpfully, "she drove a hard bargain, but we managed to hammer a deal." Lester's tone of voice no doubt that he had already agreed on the behalf of the rest of the ARC.

"Nick will not be happy," Abby said as a customary warning, her attention already focused primarily on the lions, "but why are they so big for their age?"

"It's a prehistoric species – it grows twice as tall about a head taller than the modern one, once fully mature," Helen replied instead, seemingly unshaken by the upcoming confrontation with her husband.

"Oh," Abby blinked. "You mean like the cave lion?"

"I think that the time anomaly opens into Asia instead, so I am not sure."

"Right," Abby rubbed her nose. "Anyways, we've got to apply ointment and put them on a diet – did you feed them anything?"

"A mixture of dry fish and water – plus a soporific pill to put them to sleep so that I would be able to bandage them."

"Fair enough," Abby nodded, as she heard Nick approaching, possibly flanked by Jenny. "Now why don't I take them off your hands and see what I can do?"

She began to move the lions down the corridor, even as Nick and Jenny burst on the scene.

* * *

"Lester!" Nick had cooled down somewhat since his wasted yet explosive entry into Lester's office. "What were you thinking?"

"I thought that it was nice when I wasn't awakened by my secretary who had just heard the news that a herd of giant apes was terrorizing a motorway," Lester deadpanned. "What about you?"

For several minutes Nick just stared at Lester as if the civil servant was the giant ape in question, and then exclaimed:

"I mean about her," – he pointed at the woman in question. "Did you hire her?"

"Yes I did," Lester, apparently, was ready for a fight.

"So then – what were you thinking?"

"I was thinking of the good of the company, Cutter – that's my job, by the way."

"Oh, everything is about your _job_, is it?"

"Well, her argument that when push comes to shove you will probably be able to handle her as easily as when you did and Leek's happy funhouse carried a lot of weight too."

Nick froze and whirled around to face Helen for the first time since his arrival at the ARC. The latter stared back at him, as quiet as a statue. For several moments they stared at each other, and then-

There was some noise from down the corridor, several snarls from the lions and low growl from Abby:

"Connor, can't you watch where you're going?!"

* * *

Fortunately, when the others had quickly arrived in the corridor, there was no disaster per se: just a pair of startled juvenile lions (fortunately, still too weak to do any real damage to anybody) and an equally startled, but much healthier, and consequently more dangerous, Abby Maitland.

"Abby, I'm sorry, I didn't mean any harm," Connor was quickly backpedalling from the short blonde, "I just wanted to talk to Nick – oh, hey Nick, didn't see you there-"

"Connor," Nick said with a sigh, "what did you do now?"

"Well, Helen – oh there you are – gave me a test tube of volcanic ash and asked if I could analyze it. Which I did. Which means that I came with some very interesting results that I want to share with you, see?"

"Then share, please," Jenny said before Nick could.

"Er," Connor looked around, at the snarling lions, at Abby who looked as if she would be snarling herself, at several other members of the ARC staff who were curiously looking in regard as to what shenanigans will the field team do next, and made his decision. "Can we talk about it not _here_, please?"

* * *

A short while later everyone has re-assembled in Connor's "office" (so to speak) where Connor (assisted by Sarah) prepared to talk.

"Now, what we have is volcanic ash but firstly, in an immense quantity, and second, containing a many other inorganic compounds." He paused, realized that not everybody understood what he said, toned down the official tone of voice somewhat and tried again. "Right. This is volcanic ash, a lot of it and highly saturated with all sorts of other materials. The second sample that Helen, um, had given alongside, was a portion of a tusk-"

"An elephant's or a mammoth's?" Nick couldn't help but ask.

"Neither," Connor shook his head. "It was quite severely damaged by acid, but the results were different enough from both. Uh, does anybody here know any extinct relatives of the elephant besides the mammoths?"

"Um, the mastodons and the stegodons," Nick said, thoughtfully. "I understand that it all came from Asia? Then I think it would a stegodon, just don't ask me which one – there were about 12 species of them."

Everybody looked at Helen, who shrugged.

"Essentially, a giant elephant with extra long tusks that protrude forwards at an almost straight line – I never really cared to come over close enough to study: they didn't act all that different from the mammoths."

There was a pause that was broken by Connor, again.

"Right, anyways, this narrows down the search, somewhat. By search I meant a search in time: the stegodons began to decline after the eruption of the Toba supervolcano, approximately 74 thousand years ago. If we input the data into my program, and remove the restricting factors-"

"Connor? What factors?"

"Then we get this!?"

In the ensuing silence only two voices spoke:

"How lovely, a new time anomaly chain!" – Helen.

"Connor, this is fully different from what we already have!" – Sarah.

* * *

"Mr. Temple?" Lester finally found his voice. "What have you done to your program?"

"Well, the program takes into account that time anomalies can change, open and close even as we speak, only when we set up the model I sort-of put it on pause-"

"Connor, we were working with incorrect material?"

"Um, Abby, we weren't really working with it at all-"

"I have only one question – why is _this_ time anomaly is located on the line that says present?"

Lester's question was interrupted both by the ARC's time anomaly alarm system that suddenly started to work like crazy as well as by the time anomaly itself, as it opened right next to Connor and almost swallowed him whole.

"Oh. That's why," Lester said weakly.

* * *

For several moments the ARC crew just silently observed the new time anomaly as it twinkled silently in Connor's lab, and then Nick whirled around, ready for another "Helen is evil" monologue.

"Not one word," Lester spoke first. "Nobody's here a fan of your wife, Cutter, but the way that you make her into a manifestation of universal evil makes me wonder if either the two of you are the last survivors of a long-gone age... or whatever it is written Temple's comic books, or are you simply not over her, in which case you ought to take therapy or... her. Take back, I mean."

Nick slowly stared at his boss and then back at his wife.

"I've got a taser," Helen said quietly. "Want to use it?"

"Maybe another time," Nick said after a long pause, "right now we need to figure out where the time anomaly leads to."

"We already did that, Nick," Connor spoke up suddenly. "Into the Pleistocene Ice Age, remember?"

"Yes, but shouldn't we feel a chill by now?"

"Not if it is summer," Unexpectedly Abby stuck her head into the time anomaly and then pulled it out. "Nick, guys, come on in – I think the view's amazing!" Before anyone could argue, she dove back in, followed by loyal Connor.

Lester groaned.

* * *

The view, Connor decided, was amazing, and not just because of Abby, whose rear end, incidentally, was probably worth a separate look – which he took. Repeatedly and without repercussions, 'cause Abby bent down to look at the flowering plants and didn't realize just at what Connor was really looking.

"The plants are amazing," Abby softly muttered.

"The view is great too," Connor said, quickly looking away from now-straightening Abby and into the great blue sky. "No factories polluting, no aircraft, no nothing-"

"Yeah," Abby took a deep breath. "This is awesome... and sad. To think that this is what we've lost-"

"It's not so bad, is it?" Nick and Jenny – flanked by much quieter Helen had also emerged from the time anomaly. Becker, with his submachine gun, was covering the rear, apparently trying to intimidate her – but without any visible effect. "We have already started to conserve our nature, haven't we?"

"Yeah, but still, the view," Abby spread her arms out and about indicating in the general sweeps as to what she meant. "I mean, we don't have such countryside in England anymore-"

"That's because _we_'re not in England anymore," Helen spoke up suddenly. "This is actually the north-west slope of the Swiss Alps and that," she pointed to a smallish-looking cave entrance located slightly further up and to the left, "is my home – well, camp – in this time."

"Well, isn't that surprising-"

"No, not really – the previous time anomaly had opened just last winter, less than half a kilometre down the slope. When they form chains, time anomalies tend to manifest close to each other in time _and_ space-"

"Excuse me, what do you mean, 'when they form chains'?" Jenny couldn't help her curiosity.

"Oh, I can answer that!" Connor said excitedly. "Can I?"

Helen shrugged, seemingly unimpressed, but Connor took her actions for the signs of agreement and continued:

"Um, there are two types of time anomalies: ones that form chains and others that do not. Think of them like stars, really: there are many of them, but only some form the constellations. Anyways, back then, I put the program to compose only those that form chains, or sequences, whatever-"

Nick blinked. "Are you saying that your program isn't exact?"

"Oh it is exact, but it swallows-up a lot of computer memory and it is energy-costly – after Lorraine on the sly had given me the estimates regarding its financial impact, I decided not to be the one responsible for the bankruptcy of her Majesty's government in the year 2010, so I sort of set it on a less energy-expensive- hey, we're here."

'Here', of course, was Helen's current camp, set inside the rather gloomy cave. "Care to show us around?" Nick suggested, only partially in sarcasm.

"Mmm, let's see. My sleeping bag's tucked into the corner over there, next to it is the fireplace, next to the fire place are the parcels of dry fish, granola bars and the local vegetation, oh and here's a small force field generator from the future that keeps all unwanted guests out," Helen quickly pointed out various features of her camp. "And that's the end of the tour."

"Kind of scanty, isn't it?" Jenny said after some silence. "Where are the rest of your things?"

"In safer places than this one," Helen shrugged. "Anyways, now that you have seen it, what is the plan, Nick? Did Lester tell you anything or what?"

"Well, actually he did. I think he thought that we just wanted to look around, and he was right," Jenny said absent-mindedly, as she looked back out of the cave and down the slope – and stared. "What's that?"

'That' was a massive, furry hulk, trotting through the lowlands, armed with a pair of horns, the bigger one of which appeared almost as tall as it was. Two proportionally small ears were busy locating various sounds, while nearsighted eyes were focused slowly on the space directly to the animal's front as well as to the sides of the horns.

"Oh, that's just Old Nick – the biggest, meanest, oldest woolly rhino in these parts," Helen said slowly. "Fortunately, my home is too high up and the slope is too steep for him to attempt to charge us, 'cause otherwise he would've – I saw him successfully deal with mammoth, never mind the local cave people-"

"_Old Nick_?" Nick Cutter said with feeling. "Just what were you thinking-?"

"I'm reasonably sure that that is the previous incarnation of your mother," Helen said dryly. "You know – the crazy hair style, the heavy body bulk, the beady eyes, the keen hearing-"

"Don't you start. My mother-"

"Nick, I think I remember your mother. It was after Helen has left, apparently, because you invited Stephen and I as guests to your birthday party in some restaurant and after it was over we stayed at your place and got wasted for the next week-"

"Wait a second – you took your folks out? When we were married you always had me cook us a meal-"

"Yes, well, I couldn't very well just take you out back then, I'd be too-"

"-Embarrassed, Nick? I knew it! For all of your statements of-"

"Um, people? Shouldn't we be leaving now, in case the time anomaly closes or the rhino returns, or something-"

"Yes, thank you, Captain Becker, we'll be leaving now."

* * *

"Back? So soon? You've been gone for just two-two and a half hours," Lester greeted his field team. "Has the weather turn sour or what?"

"We've been gone for several hours? But seemed like less than half an hour-"

"Actually, it was thirty thousand years," Helen said, her voice soft and quiet once more, "plus several hours on top." Everybody half-turned or turned around to look at her. "What? That's what time travel _is_, don't you know?"

"That's an interesting point, actually, and here's another," the look on Lester's face was even more sour than the usual. "London's zoo has called with claims that some hack reporter was making noise and stirring trouble, and your names were mentioned, so you, most likely, should go and resolve this situation-"

"Oh, I have to check on Helen's lions," Abby said quickly, unwilling to confront her past.

"Since they're 'my' lions in a matter of speaking, I have to help," Helen added helpfully.

"Connor, unfortunately, will have to explain to me in greater detail just what his computer program does in regards to the time anomalies, and then I want to see the financial estimate that Lorraine has given him," Nick added, also unwilling to leave the site of ARC's new and own time anomaly.

"Fair enough – Ms. Lewis, since your job is public relations, good luck!"

"Thanks," Jenny muttered sourly, "I'll need it."

_To be continued... _


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

_Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine, but belong to Impossible Pictures™._

"So, do you think Abby is unwilling to come with us because of her past?" Sarah Page spoke up after they have been driving in silence for a while. "Because I understand that she wasn't happy this morning when she ran into a former colleague of hers."

"Yes, you're probably right," Jenny admitted, for the mere purpose of killing time, if anything. "For all of her love for lizards, and, of course, feelings for Rex, and Sid and Nancy, she is certainly pleased to be working with that Columbian mammoth of ours – I am guessing that she misses being around big animals as she was in the zoo, all the same."

"True, and I doubt that she wants to spend time with the lion cubs because of Helen Cutter, either. What is the story with her, anyways?"

"It's a long one," Jenny said, now feeling irritated once more. "In a nutshell, she's Nick's estranged wife, who's been lost in the time anomalies for eight years and who needs psychiatric help without a doubt."

"And what if she gets it? Will she stay on here or what?"

Before Jenny could reply to this rather worrying question, another sound prevented her from answering it. Unfortunately, this sound didn't offer her any consolation, for it was the sound of police sirens.

The animal resembled an elephant, and indeed in its stature it was most elephant-like, complete with an almost completely hairless body, a short, ropy tail, and tall, pillar-like legs. Its head, however, was quite different: the ears were much smaller and the trunk was much shorter, and the tusks were actually in its _lower_ jaw, curving directly downwards, rather that straight forward.

"So, is it another one of those future mutants or something?" Becker inquired of Nick and Connor, even as they stared at the mammal. "'Cause there is no way I – or anyone - will believe that that is just an elephant, mutilated in a car accident."

"That's a deinotherium of some sorts," Connor said sourly, "a juvenile _Deinotherium giganteum_, most likely, for the adult specimens were taller yet."

"How tall? This fellow must be at least 3 meters tall," Becker observed.

"We're talking three and a half to four meters in height, and with stronger tusks," Nick joined the discussion. "This fellow isn't quite there yet."

"However, he _is_ sexually mature – see the dark stripes on its lower cheeks and jaw? Abby had explained that those are the signs of sexual arousal in modern bull elephants, and the deinotherium looks similar enough physically, to probably have a similar hormonal structure as well, or something like that," Connor added sheepishly. "It's probably the same with our mammoth too."

"You think that you could bring that mammoth here, so that it would fight this one and drive it back from whence it came?" Becker spoke sarcastically, and was surprised, when the other two looked at him quite seriously.

"It would be cool to see," Connor said, somewhat wistfully, "sort of a real-life Jurassic face-off, but I don't know who would get us first, Abby or Lester, so no."

"However, this idea has merit," Nick added thoughtfully. "Connor, Becker, is there a working tractor, or truck, or anything nearby? If there is one, then I think we can solve this problem with just _some_ risk."

Instead of replying, Connor and Becker merely exchanged worried glances: when Nick Cutter began to talk about risks, then there would be trouble.

"Ms. Lewis. Why am I not surprised to see you here?"

"Who's that?" Sarah spoke up before Jenny could.

"It's detective-constable Quinn, and we've ran into him before… So, Danny, why are you here?"

"And a good day to you too," Danny muttered back sarcastically, obviously not impressed by Jenny's self-control. "Still, there has been a murder here, and unless you and your crew are here because of it, I suggest that you leave this place now-"

"What?" Jenny's eyes bulged in their sockets, and ignoring her high heels, she quickly walked back, desperately hoping that the deceased wasn't somebody whom they met during the whole gigantopithecus incident.

It wasn't. But it didn't things any better, either.

The deinotherium was not a happy beast. Having evolved in Pliocene African savannahs and jungles, it didn't like the modern landscape of a London suburban abandoned train station at all – it stomped around, emitted sounds similar to a pig's grunts but much, much louder, and generally made a nuisance of itself.

And then… it got a response – a loud sound of a car horn, or rather, of a smallish jeep. Perhaps its owner expected the massive mammal to panic, but the deinotherium, never used to backing down from anyone except from its older and bigger relatives, now decided to charge instead, facing its new opponent face-on.

As it loomed closer and closer, its pillar-like legs carrying it over the terrain without any trouble, the jeep whirled sharply backwards. With dexterity surprising for such a tall animal, the deinotherium followed the car, but as it turned around, it ran into the still-open time anomaly, and vanished from the modern world.

"Got you!" Connor Temple said triumphantly, even as he used the time anomaly manifestation device to close the time anomaly from which the deinotherium came from in the first place. "Guess we shown it who's boss!"

In the next moment, Nick's cell phone rang. "Jenny?" the man spoke-up surprised into it. "Is something wrong?"

"Yes," Jenny's voice came tersely through the phone. "Remember the crazy ranger? The one who had a pet saber-tooth cat?"

"Yes," Nick replied. "I remember her. Why?"

"Her corpse – her _mauled _corpse was discovered at the entrance of London's zoo some time after we solved the problem of the giant apes. I don't know what has happened, but get here _immediately_."

"Will do," Nick nodded, fully aware that Jenny was very, very panicked. "We're finished here anyways."

_To be continued…_


End file.
